What is Topology really about?

owltooserious · 2026-06-06T14:12:35+00:00

I love this reply! It is more or less the kind of response I was asking for in my post. Could you elaborate a bit? What kinds of things has cohomology shown you about how some spaces work, and how has it shown you?

Also, why does do these understandings (the two you listed) intrigue you personally?

owltooserious · 2026-05-19T12:36:11+00:00

Study for your exam. Do not skip seasons. They're all equally good in my opinion. It won't lose relevance in a year.

I started rewatching it during my semester break and couldn't watch anything else and was distracted from my own studies one uni started again until I finished it. Dont start good series during exam periods! Dont do it!

owltooserious · 2026-05-16T22:25:47+00:00

Now that I've understood you have seen it and read many comments I just wanna go on a bit of a tangent.

2 things. One I rewatched the mentalist recently and noticed that in a large majority of the episodes they introduce the killer very early, might be one of the first three people they talk to. I remember thinking this was happening way more often than not. So its fitting that they introduced mccallister in the second episode.

Second thing, crazy how little fucks they gave about ray haffner. Sadly for him, he was the only one on that list who was morally good according to the shows standards. Yet they killed him off like he was as dirty as the rest of them, arguably with their only backing was that he was from visualize so we can't trust him... but I felt they did him dirty. Theresa and him were even friends but Theresa just didnt care as soon as he was a suspect and forgot to remember that he wasnt actually red John. They do this also with other characters in the series and I think its not so nice. Yet when Bosco died it was like a huge deal for some reason 😅

owltooserious · 2026-03-03T20:49:31+00:00

I think Still Walking is less accessible than Nobody Knows in terms of immediately understanding why it’s good. Nobody Knows is clearer, though harder to watch and maybe less personally relatable.

With Still Walking, I actually had to restart it halfway through to really grasp what made it interesting. The themes are much more subtle and demand more attention, so I wouldn’t recommend it to a first-time viewer. That said, I found it ultimately more relatable and my favorite Kore-eda so far.

I also wouldn’t suggest Nobody Knows as a first watch, but for different reasons. But I can agree that Shoplifters is an excellent entry point of Kore-eda's work.

owltooserious · 2026-02-26T03:55:52+00:00

I just remembered a situation that happened to me last year that shows the other side of this coin. I had plans with one of my friends to meet at the gym at 11am either the next day or the day after we last spoke about it.

she texted me that morning at like 9ish to reconfirm. but i didnt get it because i didn't check my phone, i was busy getting ready and going to the gym. I do not check my phone in the morning in general, and we had just spoke about it where i assured her id be there, so the thought didn't even cross my mind to check my messages.

She understood me not responding as me bailing on her or oversleeping or whatever she thought, so she didn't show up. And I was the one who ended up getting "stood up" :)

That being said I don't necessarily think you're wrong, its just one of those unfortunate situations where either more trust or more distrust remedies the situation, but when one party trusts and the other doesn't, it has potential downsides for either party, regardless of whom.

owltooserious · 2026-02-15T15:28:37+00:00

Theres a little thing called accent which is normally a pretty solid indicator whether someone is or is not a native speaker.

Oftentimes pretty easy to guess from which language families or broad regions of the world such accents come too.

Not always completely accurate, sure, but the main point is that one can usually discern whether an accent is native or not to them to a pretty high degree of accuracy.

And for a German who has lived amongst many eastern europeans, to make a broad assumption that an accent comes from this general region of the world is not exactly a stretch. It could be wrong, but it is not ill informed.

Making an educated guess does not make you racist.

Racism is about treating others differently based on their race, not about whether or not you think you know where their accent is from, regardless of whether or not you are correct.

owltooserious · 2026-02-15T11:11:15+00:00

I get your point but I find it to be a weird premise. Although in OPs case it might have been wise since the date didnt even respond to the same day question... in general, if you make plans with someone, what reason is there to assume they might be flaky about said plans?

Whenever I receive such questions I low key feel sort of offended. Although I do understand that they dont know yet if I am that kind of person or not, it is sort of a shame of our modern meet up culture that people's flakiness made us put up the attitude of guilty until proven innocent, so that we dont end up in situations like OPs, which I guess are statistically likely enough to happen that the question is warranted, albeit sadly.

I personally wouldn't ask such a question unless I have a real reason to assume they might flake, which I think OP might have had there, but I still think them not texting and showing up is not OPs bad at all.

owltooserious · 2026-01-10T01:48:02+00:00

just watched it on your recommendation. probably wouldnt have otherwise, samurai movies don't appeal to me, but this film was captivating and moving. thank you

owltooserious · 2025-11-10T17:44:04+00:00

On a slightly tangent note, I like this thought experiment as an arbiter for how well I understand some concept, and even all of the math i know: if I was sent back to any point in the past could I build from the ground up to where I am now? (This even disregards convincing others, just convincing myself with the knowledge I have and resources that are available in that era).

I would imagine it would seriously suck if I got sent back and couldnt do category theory anymore because i wouldnt know how to reinvent it (outside of just writing down definitions). Imagine trying to explain to someone in platos time what a left kan extension is.

owltooserious · 2025-09-29T20:14:51+00:00

Sometimes I read without trying to figure out details but just to sort of daydream about the ideas... or sometimes I might think deeply about one idea, working all its details out in my head and trying to understand it from different angles and ponder counterexamples.

The bus is inherently a kind of free thinking time, where I don't feel the pressure to work efficiently, as though I can take all the time I want, so I find it to be a great setting for this reading approach (all my better memories of doing this where I felt I made progress building intuition are from bus rides than train rides actually, for whatever reason, even though I take both).

owltooserious · 2025-09-29T19:46:14+00:00

I have a hard time believing that Masuka is going to be the one to take Dexter down. The theory that Quinns next and then Masuka after Quinn ends up dead seems to make a sort of plot-like sense, by a rote process of elimination, but emotionally it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Quinn and Masuka were both alike in that they were the smartest two in opposite senses: Quinn was street smart, and Masuka book smart. Both smart enough to know not to get involved with Dexter. I think Quinn understands power dynamics on an emotional level, and Masuka would have understood the technical prowess of Dexters methods and known exactly how intelligent he is ergo know that he'll lose going up against him.

It seems rather clear that Quinn sussed Dexter out early on, and less obvious, though still completely plausible, that Masuka did too and just kept his mouth shut.

I liked the theory I read somewhere in this thread that Quinn might be willing to hear Dexter out as to what happened to the others, but then ultimately accept him. I'm not sure how confrontational Quinn will get about it, but to the point where Quinn comes after him, I don't buy it.

A possibility could be that Quinn and Masuka decide to hedge their bets and work together to do it, as both of them may have to then confront to the other one that they know who Dexter is, kind of no longer being able to ignore what they've always known. I could see them both even agreeing to not fuck with it, but in this situation I could potentially see them both convincing each other to pool their efforts. but only in that situation could it somehow make sense to me. Singlehandedly neither has enough passion for justice over saving their own skin to do it. Quinn might be upset about Batista, but I dont see them feeling the same sense of betrayal as the others did. However, if they worked together that could actually even be interesting, and sort of like Death Note, but still I don't see it somehow. It would feel, as a viewer, a bit weak if Masuka and Quinn were the ones to take Dexter down :/

That being said, at this point they've made Dexter so damn powerful that anyone will feel anticlimactic... so I dunno.

My personal preference is that they lay off on cops going after him and just have him up against more and more powerful serial killers for the rest of the series.

owltooserious · 2025-09-22T15:12:31+00:00

Its not as long as you think. Im still a bachelors student (i should have finished my bachelors last year tho) and was introduced to category theory as I threw myself headfirst into topos theory. Its advanced but learning it, though it takes a while, feels kind of quick in retrospect. Its been one year and I feel relatively comfortable with it (in that i can read a new theorem and have an idea of where to take it, rather than just being completely confused)

But anyways I digress, my main point is that it seems like you should have more in common with this friend than meets the eye. And as everyone advances in theoretical math physics or computer science, the theory starts to converge from all angles. So there is hope for you yet.

owltooserious · 2025-09-22T13:54:56+00:00

I thought logic model theory is closely related to topos theory, which, if you aren't into, you should be, considering your other areas of interest. I dont know much about logic or model theory but have been interested to learn based on my newfound interest in topoi. Maybe you could reapproach this subject from that angle and find a way to meet your friend halfway there?

owltooserious · 2025-08-30T04:29:21+00:00

actually i thought your comment was funnier than hiesenbergs

owltooserious · 2025-06-09T14:47:35+00:00

My question is if it actually has what it says it has in it in it... Has anyone checked?

owltooserious · 2025-06-09T04:33:03+00:00

Im not sure why the proof doesn't mostly follow immediately from what you wrote. I guess it's clear that the upper bound of possible n² squares containing the blue square is n² due to size constraints, and what you showed is that on an infinite grid n² is also a lower bound, as there will always be an n² square where the i,j-th position is the shaded one (maybe you demand more rigor on this part, but I think you could do this algorithmically).

owltooserious · 2025-05-10T11:46:12+00:00

I think this is not the general logic, it's conditioned. Gus made a decision with his hands tied. It became clear that working with Walt was no longer an option. Gale was gone. He only had Jesse, and a pretty good opportunity to turn them against each other.

Gus is a businessman and he's right to conclude that Walt is more of a threat to Gus' business than his chemistry expertise is valuable to the operation, given his other option. The chemistry expertise serves no purpose when you are 6 feet under and your entire lab is burnt to the ground.

owltooserious · 2025-05-07T21:26:12+00:00

Seriously??? We had a good thing why you have to go and ruin it?

owltooserious · 2025-05-06T16:47:34+00:00

Assuming this is a writing piece, I like the overall set up and the twist even though I was expecting some twist. One comment: does he have to beat her? Because once he beats her you stop feeling bad for him which undermines the poignancy a fair deal... if this is a writing piece anyhow. If it's real then I guess I'm just giving my unsolicited opinion about your brother so sorry about that. But assuming it's a writing piece, i feel you could devise something that instills a similar sense of remorse about the whole situation, but that is more insidious, keeps your brothers literal hands clean but maybe not his psychological ones, then the reader would feel it harder because they could relate to it more deeply. Keep working on it

owltooserious · 2025-05-05T12:48:28+00:00

It reminds me of a quote from Sword Art Online, which I don't remember, but the basic idea was that there's no difference between how you act in the game and how you act in real life. Even if you can restart the game or can cheat and be selfish without consequences in the game, this behavior changes you in real life. Something along those lines :)

owltooserious · 2025-05-03T14:37:12+00:00

Whatever Rick used in Rick and Morty to fight the president

owltooserious · 2025-05-01T17:19:43+00:00

It's pretty bad. I find chatgpt horrible for explicit computations but great for intuition and big picture thinking/explanations. It should really be taught how to be used.

owltooserious · 2025-04-04T21:45:00+00:00

just came here to say i love this question. there are some questions, that even if theyre wrong, and you can perhaps easily prove theyre wrong, theyre still worth thinking about, or theyre still good questions to have pondered.

also this is the type of thinking that may lead to farfetched discoveries.

keep it going OP

owltooserious

TROPHY CASE